Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, September 1st, 2024
the Week of Proper 17 / Ordinary 22
the Week of Proper 17 / Ordinary 22
advertisement
advertisement
advertisement
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Commentaries
Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible Morgan's Exposition
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliographical Information
Morgan, G. Campbell. "Commentary on Deuteronomy 17". "Morgan's Exposition on the Bible". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/gcm/deuteronomy-17.html. 1857-84.
Morgan, G. Campbell. "Commentary on Deuteronomy 17". "Morgan's Exposition on the Bible". https://www.studylight.org/
Whole Bible (41)Old Testament (1)Individual Books (3)
Verses 1-20
Continuing the discourse commenced in the previous chapter, we find insistence on the fact that no false sacrifices must be offered and no false worshipers permitted to approach. For dealing with such, a method was minutely laid down. First there must be careful inquiry and for condemnation there must be three, or at the least two, witnesses. Where cases of peculiar difficulty arose they must be remitted to the priests and to the supreme judge, that is, to the religious and civil court.
Then followed a revelation of the threefold medium through which the government of God must be interpreted- the king, the priest, and the prophet. In dealing with the king the words of Moses were those of prophetic foresight. He saw what would happen in the history of the people after they had come into the land. Therefore the principles of appointment were declared. The king must be chosen of God and be of the people's own nation. He was not to multiply horses, wives, silver, or gold. All these things were characteristic of the kings of the nations round about them, and it was provided that Israel's king must live a simpler life for the fulfillment of a higher ideal, Moreover, he must be a student and doer of the law.
This is a remarkable portrait of God's ideal of kingship. It would be an interesting exercise to measure the kings of men throughout history by this ideal. Such a procedure would inevitably issue in a twofold consciousness. First, we would find that the measure in which the kings of men have conformed to the ideal is the measure in which they have contributed to the strength of national life; and, on the contrary, the measure by which they have violated these principles has been the measure of the disaster resulting from their rule.